Chase County sending Moreno to state

    Trevin Moreno will get a close-up look at Nebraska’s best Class C runners Friday when he represents Chase County Schools at the state cross country meet in Kearney.
    Moreno, a sophomore, qualified individually last Thursday with a 10th place finish at the C5 District Meet in Ogallala.
    The Class C boys state meet starts at 11:30 a.m. MT at the Kearney Country Club.
    Out of districts, the top 15 runners qualify even if their team did not. The top three teams also qualify.
    As a team the Chase County boys were sixth among the 11 other district teams with full squads, and just 16 points out of third place, noted CCS Coach Carl Zuege.
    Running in the 13th or 14th spot much of the race, Zuege said Moreno moved up the last mile to finish 10th in the field of 67 runners.
    Zuege said his performance is a result of Moreno’s hard work this summer.
    The coach said they knew it would be a tough task running five sophomores and a freshman at districts to be able to qualify as a team, but said the Longhorns ran well.
    Freshman Haven Hauxwell was second across the line for Chase County in 19th, followed by Brayan Reyes, 34th, and Salvador Venegas, 37th. Also running on the team were Navy Smith, 39th, and Andrew Wiest, 44th.
    With the youthfulness on this year’s team, Zuege said they have a lot to look forward to in the coming years, also with a strong junior high class of six runners in the wings.
    District champion Gothenburg blew the other boys’ teams away with its four scoring runners finishing first, third, fourth and ninth overall.
    Broken Bow was second and Sidney, third, en route to state qualification.
    Winds were in the 40 mph range for the district meet, slowing down times across the board.
    On the girls’ side, improving times was the focus for the five Chase County girls heading into districts as state qualification was not in the cards this year, the coach said.
    “We really wanted to focus on improving our times at districts having run the course earlier, but the 40 mph winds took us out of what we wanted to do,” Zuege said.
    “So, we focused on effort, and our girls did that,” he said.
    Senior McKenzie Vogt had the highest finish for Chase County in 26th, followed by Tessa Smith 41st, Faith Hauxwell 42nd, Maddie Hanes 47th and Paige Nickless 49th.
    “I was happy with their efforts,” he said.
    The C5 girls race drew a field of 54 runners. The top three teams headed to state include 1st McCook, 2nd Chadron and 3rd Sidney.
    Zuege said the girls’ team will lose a pair of seniors after this year’s season, but three will return with experience. They’ll be looking to add some additional runners next year, he said.
District C5 Meet
Boys’ team scores—1. Gothenburg, 17; 2. Broken Bow, 55; 3. Sidney, 84; 4. Ogallala, 93; 5. McCook, 97; 6. Chase County, 100; 7. Cozad, 116; 8. Chadron, 117; 9. Hershey, 145; 10. Alliance, 146; 11. Valentine, 155.
Boys’ individual results—1. Parker Graves, 16:46.79, Gothenburg; 2. Noah Osmond, 16:49.89, Broken Bow; 3. Ethan Olsen, 17:22.99, Gothenburg; 4. Yahriel Gaeta, 17:34.57, Gothenburg; 5. Josiah Wilkinson, 17:47.66, McCook; 6. Grant Cappe, 17:54.02, McCook; 7. Grant Springer, 17:58.56, Valentine; 8. Lorenzo Levario, 18:01.15, Cozad; 9. Nathan Sager, 18:05.98, Gothenburg; 10. Trevin Moreno, 18:06.87, Chase County; 11. Benjamin Cassatt-Reina, 18:07.45, Alliance; 12. Brock Oeltjen, 18:07.45, Broken Bow; 13. Abel Flores, 18:07.69, Gothenburg; 14. Jashawn Davenport, 18:09.80, Sidney; 15. Noah Canas, 18:09.86, Sidney; 19. Haven Hauxwell, 18:25.13, Chase County; 34. Brayan Reyes, 19:14.78, Chase County; 37. Salvador Venegas, 19:30.67, Chase County; 39. Navy Smith, 19:32.52, Chase County; 44. Andrew Wiest, 19:46.45, Chase County.
Girls team scores—1. McCook, 28; 2. Chadron, 45; 3. Sidney, 60; 4. Cozad, 71; 5. Broken Bow, 72; 6. Ogallala, 74; 7. Valentine, 135; 8. Chase County, 139; 9. Gothenburg, 151.
Girls’ individual results—1. Lindee Henning, 19:31.55, Ogallala; 2. Sammy Rodewald, 19:53.67, McCook; 3. Talissa Tanquary, 20:00.83, Sidney; 4. Mallory Applegate, 20:32.10, Cozad; 5. Micaiah Fuller, 20:36.94, Chadron; 6. Emma Cappe, 20:37.99, McCook; 7. Karyn Burkholder, 21:07.90, Cozad; 8. Sienna Dutton, 21:27.60, McCook; 9. Rheo Dykstra, 21:41.75, Sidney; 10. Lauren Henning, 21:53.29, Ogallala; 11. Grace Pyle, 21:54.10, Chadron; 12. Brecken Gale, 21:54.60, McCook; 13. MaKinley Tobey, 22:07.76, Broken Bow; 14. Emma Witte, 22:09.75, Chadron; 15. Jentsyn Fuller, 22:24.34, Chadron; 41. Tessa Smith, 25:14.99, Chase County; 42. Faith Hauxwell, 25:17.62, Chase County; 47. Madelynn Hanes, 25:56.18, Chase County; 49. Paige Nickless, 26:14.01, Chase County.